Part 1: Sounds and Spelling

Let’s start by going over the letters in the alphabet. These fall into groups of consonants and vowels:

k

kw

s

r

w

i

h

n

t

ts

‘

a

e

i

o

en

on

r

The letter r can be pronounced differently depending on dialect. Part 4 discusses this variation in more detail. In the examples below, it will be pronounced as an L.

Letter	Kanien’kéha Example	Audio	English Example	Note
r	rotshénhton		leaf	Varies by Dialect

‘

The symbol ‘ represents a glottal stop. This is the sound occurs in the English expression “uh-oh”: it is the “break” or “catch” in between the two syllables.

Letter	Kanien’kéha Example	Audio	English Example
‘	ionttsi‘tsahninón:tha		uh–oh

i

You may notice the letter i/i appears in both the consonant and vowel category. This is because it is pronounced like the letter Y before another vowel, and like a vowel otherwise.

Letter	Kanien’kéha Example	Audio	Context	English Example
Consonant i	iah		Before a vowel	yes
Vowel i	tsi		Not before a vowel	meet

Some dialects may represent these two types of i differently in writing. Part 4 discusses this in detail.

en and on

The vowels en and on are nasalized. This means they are pronounced with an “n-like” quality. on might sound like the vowel in English “soon”, without actually pronouncing the n. Because of this nasality, they are written with an n.

Letter	Kanien’kéha Example	Audio
en	rotshénhton
on	rotshénhton

Notice that this means the letter n will sometimes be a part of the vowel, and will not be pronounced on its own. As a rule of thumb, if it occurs before a vowel or at the start of a word, it is the consonant n. If it occurs before a consonant or at the end of a word, it is part of the nasal vowel en or on.

Letter	Kanien’kéha Example	Audio	Context
Consonant n	nikattókha		Start of a word or before a vowel
Nasal Vowel en	atátken		End of a word or before a consonant

There may be some cases where the form is ambiguous, such as in the word tehotténion.

Letter	Kanien’kéha Example	Audio
Consonant n	tehotténion
Nasal Vowel en	tehotténion

These cases are rare, and can usually be determined using other information. For example, in this case, the fact that the stressed vowel is short means that the sequence must be énion, with a consonant n. Part 3 discusses stress in more detail.

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k, t, and s

k, t, and s may be pronounced differently depending on their position in a word. Watch the following video to learn more:

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With all that in mind, here is a complete table of all the sounds you’ve just learned, with examples in Kanien’kéha. There’s also a column with the sound represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Click here for an interactive chart of IPA sounds.

Kanien’kéha Letter	Kanien’kéha Example	Translation	Audio	IPA
a	atátken	mirror		[a]
e	shé:kon	hello		[e]
i	ohì:kta	thorn		[i]
o	ohì:kta	thorn		[o]
en	rotshénhton	he is weak		[ʌ̃]
on	rotshénhton	he is weak		[ũ]
t	tehotténion	he changes		[d]
	thotshón:waien	he has an earth hole over there		[t]
k	nikattókha	I am wise		[g]
	nikattókha	I am wise		[k]
s	satkonhsóhare	wash your face		[z]
	shé:kon	hello		[s]
kw	ahkwesáhsne	Ahkwesahsne		[gʷ]
ts	tsóhsera	one year		[dz]
	thotshón:waien	he has an earth hole over there		[ts]
h	Ahkwesáhsne	Ahkwesahsne		[h]
‘	ionttsi‘tsahninón:tha	florist		[ʔ]
r	rotshénhton	he is weak		[l]
n	nikattókha	I am wise		[n]
w	wa’keronwaróhtshi	I remove nails		[w]
i	iáh, takkwén:ni	“No, I can’t”		[j]